Contents

137 years ago, back when Mars was just a colony under UN control, an engineer named Solomon Epstein was tinkering with the jalopy of a space ship that he owned. Initially, just trying to marginally improve fuel efficiency, Epstein hits the drive button and immediately begins traveling far faster than he ever imagined. Narrating the flashback, Epstein says his discovery changed everything.

Back in the present, the UN Security Council is grappling with what Eros has done. Colonel Janus thinks it was a test of a new Martian fuel drive, a notion that Avasarala scoffs at. Whatever it is, Janus says, Eros represents the "greatest technological leap since the Epstein drive." They plan to send a team to Venus to investigate.

Holden sends a message home to his mother telling her he's okay and how proud he is of his crew (especially Naomi). Later, he and Naomi continue to debate over whether or not they should destroy their sample of the protomolecule.

Holden and Naomi stand in front of the rest of the Rocinante crew and make the big announcement that they're seeing each other. After a pregnant pause, Amos and Alex erupt into laughter and say that Alex lost the bet. Amos is surprisingly cool with all of this.

Alex then pulls Holden aside to point out that 30 of the nukes that Earth sent have not been shut down. Where are they now? They see that they've been caught by a giant space net.

137 years ago, Epstein's fuel-burning breakthrough was great for mankind but kind of terrible for him, as he's now speeding off into space at g-forces that will surely kill him. He tries to reach the panel to turn off the burners, but he can't.

Avasarala has dinner with Dr. Michael Iturbi, who was present at the earlier UN meeting. The two of them seem to have some kind of romantic history, but she shuts that down quickly. He asks Chrisjen to find a way to get him onto that transport to Venus. He offers to be her eyes and ears there if she does.

Holden and Naomi speak to Fred Johnson about the 30 missing nukes. Fred doesn't so much see it as a problem because he's got them. Holden thinks they ought to jettison the missiles and tell Earth and Mars about the protomolecule. Fred counters that the nukes can be good bargaining chips, and as for the protomolecule, the safest thing they can do is keep Earth and Mars in the dark.

Alex, enjoying his hero status, chats up a lady but runs afoul of her jealous ex. This starts a brawl, but Amos shows up out of nowhere and beats the ex down.

137 years ago: Epstein makes a last-ditch effort to signal his wife, but he can't reach the signaling device. Things are looking grim.

After Fred tells Holden that he's going to need to pick a side as things escalate, Naomi goes to see Fred as well. She thinks they should tell the people everything about what Miller and Julie did on Eros. Not the protomolecule stuff; just how an Earther/OPA member and a Belter came together to save humanity. That story has value. Fred eventually agrees.

Later, the Roci crew debates whether they should destroy their protomolecule sample. Alex says they should give it to Mars, which earns him a heap of side-eye from Naomi. Ultimately, Naomi drops her objections and concedes to Holden and Amos that they should eliminate it. Naomi shows Holden a simulated launch of the torpedo containing the Protomolcule; however, unbeknownst to Holden, the torpedo remains dormant, inactive and immobile. The torpedo's rocket exhaust is shown glowing briefly without leaving its location.

137 years ago, Epstein is about to die - of a stroke, most likely. But he voices over about his discovery and how it would allow Mars to finally break free of its colonial limitations, travel out into space, mine the asteroids, and colonize the Belt.

Avasarala finally confronts Errinwright about Mao. She says they need to know what Mao knows and cut a deal with him. Avasarala goes off on Errinwright, saying that she will threaten to ruin Mao's family if they don't bring him forward.

On the Roci, Alex comes upon Amos defacing the Martian flag (erasing Deimos, since it's not there anymore) and starts an argument with him. He's still mad about the bar fight and Amos treating him like some damsel in distress. Amos matter-of-factly says he does see Alex as weak and in need of protection. Alex objects to that assessment.

Naomi gives Drummer a hand in disabling the countermeasures on the pilfered nukes. They bond some more over their common Belter experiences.

On the shared UN/MCR moon of Ganymede, Bobbie Draper and her marines patrol the border zone. While in a communication blackout, they spot gunfire on the UN border line. Suddenly, the marines' comms are jammed, and six marines appear to the charging at them. There's weapons fire everywhere, on the surface near the domes and among the ships orbiting overhead. Draper's unit is attacked from the UN line and her commanding officer dies during the engagement in orbit. Draper is the only one left to see the approach of the attacking figure - and it looks alien.

Iturbi [13:39.615]:Suddenly, Eros, the entire asteroid, moves… in a way that practically defies every single known law of physics.

Iturbi [13:49.125]:Now, Janus thinks that means there's a new Martian weapon, some staggering breakthrough on an incredible scale of a technology they've been pursuing utterly unsuccessfully for years.

Iturbi [14:00.636]:But ask yourself this question,...… "Does it make any sense at all that Mars would want to test their ground-breaking technology in a bio-hazard zone that they themselves created?"

Iturbi [14:13.781]:So, what if this bio-weapon isn't a bio-weapon after all?

Iturbi [14:18.054]:What if it is responsible, in some way we can't yet fully understand, for Eros moving?

Iturbi [14:26.162]:I believe Eros was infected by an entirely new order of technology,… something from somewhere else,… somewhere beyond the reach of our species.

Iturbi [14:37.139]:I believe the Eros incident was our first contact with alien life.

Avasarala [14:43.512]:I have a file with 900 pages of analysis,and contingency plans for war with Mars, including 14 different scenarios about what to do,if they develop an unexpected new technology.

Avasarala [14:58.494]:My file for what to do if an advanced alien species comes calling? It's three pages long and it begins with, "Step one, find God."

Iturbi [15:10.707]:I need to get to Venus. You can pull the strings and get me on that ship. I will be your eyes and your ears. I'll be your own private back channel to everything we find, unfiltered by Janus and Errinwright. Please, let me prove I'm right.

Holden [20:49.046]:On the way out, Amos was forced to kill a friend of Miller's. They needed some time to work through that… and, then, Miller wanted to give his friend a proper burial at sea. Which means that it's none of your goddamn business.

Avasarala [33:21.566]:I will freeze their assets. Cancel their contracts. Cripple their business.

Avasarala [33:28.373]:…and I have the power to do it because I am the fucking hero who helped save Mother Earth from the cataclysm that Jules-Pierre Mao unleashed.

Avasarala [33:37.950]:Tell his children that government is more powerful than any corporation …and the only reason they think it tilts the other way is because we poor, public servants are always looking for some fat, private-sectors payoff down the road.

Avasarala [33:53.932]:…but, I'm not looking and by the time they can pull the strings to force me out, it'll be too late.

Avasarala [34:00.672]:Their family will be ruined. Their mother, the children, their children, all of them, pariahs. Outlaws. Hunted and on the run for the rest of their days until we find them,and nail each and every last one to the wall.

The title of the episode refers to a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.[1]The five instances to which the title is referring to:

The Epstein family estate licensed the drive technology to Earth, in exchange for Martian Independence.

The drive itself, a revolutionary nuclear fusion reactor design, means ships can cover longer distances in a shorter period of time, using a fraction of the fuel

Fred Johnson requisitioned the unaccounted ordinance, thermonuclear missiles, which would change the balance of power in the Solar System

Chrisjen Avasarala offers transactional immunity to Jules-Pierre Mao in exchange for his expertise on the protomolecule

The protomolecule has the ability to reshape life and man's dominion of the Solar System.

Gyro (or Gyroscope): a wheel mounted in a set of rings so that its axis of rotation is free to turn in any direction; when spun rapidly, it will keep the original direction of its rotation axis no matter which way the ring is turned [2]; it is this "memory" of direction that makes the component ideal for guidance systems.

Nuclear fusion: Process where nuclei of atoms are brought together and energy is released as a byproduct.[3]

Thermonuclear fusion: Using the heat and pressure from the nuclear fission reaction, process from which atom are broken apart, to drive the nuclear fusion reaction, which releases significantly more energy.[4]

Zero-inertia : minimal to no resistance to a change in motion [5]. With respect, to the Zero-inertia drive, it allows spacecraft to make drastic maneuvers without the gravitiational forces tearing the crew to shreds

Massive relativistic field generator: According to Einstein's Special Relativity Theory, as an object approaches the speed of light, time slows down, and the object can cover large distances in a short period of time, as perceived by a person outside the accelerated reference frame.[6]

The reason why the general consensus skews toward speed of light travel being impossible[7] is the following: A ship and it complement have a certain mass, and if the ship somehow had the energy to reach the speed of light, the energy would be equivelant to additional mass, as per the famous mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc², where E is energy and it is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. The additional mass-energy would then require even more energy to accelerate, which again is equivelant to additional mass; causing an exponential loop; this implies infinite energy would be require to move any object with mass at the speed of light.

Stickman: a player in any of various games (as hockey or lacrosse) played with a stick.[8]